Antisemitism in America > Presidents of Harvard and Penn protecting Antisemitic rights to call for the Genocide of Jews; Ackman calls for their resignations

 

Presidents of Harvard and Penn say 

calling for genocide of Jews 

not necessarily against their rules

DEC 6, 2023 8:30 AM BY ROBERT SPENCER

The Left and Islamic jihadis: united in hatred of Jews.

==========================================================================================

Billionaire who refused to hire anti-Israel grads

demands Ivy League chiefs ‘resign in disgrace’ 

for antisemitism failures

By 

Social Links forNicholas McEntyre

Published Dec. 6, 2023, 6:35 a.m. ET

“The presidents’ answers reflect the profound educational, moral and ethical failures that 

pervade certain of our elite educational institutions due in large part to their failed leadership.” 

“They must all resign in disgrace,” Ackman said before adding that if it was a leader from one of his companies, they’d be gone within the hour.

“Why has antisemitism exploded on campus and around the world? Because of leaders like Presidents Gay, Magill and Kornbluth who believe genocide depends on the context,” he added.

“To think that these are the leaders of Ivy League institutions that are charged with the responsibility to educate our best and brightest.”

Ackman applauded the politicians for how they conducted the hearing, saying they showed “tremendous leadership and moral clarity in their statements,” and it was a “masterclass of how our government and democracy should operate.”

The billionaire’s anger toward the three school leaders was heightened by their behaviors as they sat in front of the elected officials.

“Throughout the hearing, the three behaved like hostile witnesses, exhibiting a profound disdain for the Congress with their smiles and smirks, and their outright refusal to answer basic questions with a yes or no answer.

7

Ackman said the school leaders’ answers amplified the failures of the universities.

AP

7

Protesters hold a demonstration on Oct. 14 in Cambridge, Mass., to show their support for Palestinians following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

AFP via Getty Images

7

Demonstrators take part in an “Emergency Rally: Stand with Palestinians Under Siege in Gaza” at Harvard University on Oct. 14, 2023.

REUTERS

Ackman has been a prominent figure in the fight against antisemitism in the US since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, calling for the release of the names of Harvard students who blamed Israel for the attack and the suspension of a Harvard student newspaper editor.

In November, Ackman called for the editor of the Harvard Law Review to face disciplinary action after he was caught on video blocking the way of an individual purported to be a supporter of Israel during a demonstration.

===========================================================================================

Corruption is Everywhere > Two South American Presidents in Trouble; Sarkozy loses appeal on corruption and influence peddling

..

Facing impeachment for corruption, Ecuador’s president

dissolves congress

Issued on: 17/05/2023 - 15:40

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso, who is weathering impeachment proceedings in congress over alleged corruption, issued a decree Wednesday dissolving the legislature.

The decree released abruptly by the unpopular conservative president’s office states that Lasso is dissolving the opposition-led National Assembly “due to a grave political crisis and national commotion.”

In dissolving congress, Lasso also called upon the National Electoral Council (CNE) to call new elections.

It is the first time a president in Ecuador has dissolved the legislature.

By law, within seven days of the publication of this decree, the CNE must convene new presidential and legislative elections to finish out the current term.

Until a new National Assembly is sworn in, Lasso is able to rule by decree, with checks by the constitutional court.

Lasso’s impeachment trial opened in congress on Tuesday, amid a spike in violence related to drug trafficking in the South American country and widespread anger over the rising cost of living. Lasso is very unpopular.

The majority left-wing opposition has accused Lasso of knowing about alleged corruption in state owned companies, in which his brother-in-law Danilo Carrera and a businessman accused of drug trafficking have been implicated.

Speaking on state television Wednesday, Lasso defended his decision to dissolve the National Assembly.

“It is a democratic decision not only because it is constitutional but because it returns to the Ecuadoran people the possibility to decide,” Lasso said, referencing the new elections.

Ecuador’s congress tried to impeach Lasso in June, at a time of violent protests against the rising cost of living, but came up 12 votes short.

A similar political drama played out late last year in neighboring Peru.

Then President Pedro Castillo, also facing corruption allegations, tried to dissolve congress in December so he could rule by decree. He was arrested the same day and is now in prison awaiting trial on charges of rebellion.

(AFP)

French court upholds three-year sentence for ex-president

Sarkozy in wiretapping case

Issued on: 17/05/2023 - 07:58

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) arrives at the courthouse with his lawyer Jacqueline Laffont

for the appeal hearing of a corruption trial at Paris courthouse on May 17, 2023. © Bertrand Guay, AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

A French appeals court on Wednesday upheld a prison sentence of three years, including two suspended, against former president Nicolas Sarkozy for corruption and influence peddling.

The court ruled he should serve a one-year detention sentence at home with an electronic bracelet and banned him from public office for three years over his attempts to secure favours from a judge in a case uncovered by wiretapping.

Sarkozy is France's first postwar president to have been sentenced to jail.

The 68-year-old left the courtroom without making any comment, but his lawyer said they would appeal before the Court of Cassation, France's highest appeals court.

"Sarkozy is innocent... We will not give up this fight," said lawyer Jacqueline Laffont.

Sarkozy, who served one term from 2007 to 2012, has been embroiled in legal troubles ever since leaving office.

In March 2021, a court found he and his former lawyer, Thierry Herzog, had formed a "corruption pact" with Judge Gilbert Azibert to obtain and share information about a legal investigation.

The trial came after investigators wiretapped Sarkozy's two official phone lines, and discovered that he also had a third unofficial one taken out in 2014 under the name "Paul Bismuth", through which he communicated with Herzog. 

The contents of these phone calls led to the 2021 corruption verdict.

The former leader contested the accusations and immediately appealed.

On the first day of the appeals hearing in December last year, Sarkozy said he had "never corrupted anybody".

His conversations with Herzog were played in court and expected to take a central role in determining Wednesday's ruling. 

The appeals court also upheld the same sentences for Herzog and former judge Azibert, and banned Sarkozy's lawyer from practising for three years.

Two other cases

The so-called Bismuth case is just one of several dogging the man dubbed the "hyper-president" while in office.

Sarkozy will be retried on appeal from November 2023 in the so-called Bygmalion case, which saw him sentenced to one year in prison in a lower court.

The prosecution accused Sarkozy's team of spending nearly double the legal limit on his lavish 2012 re-election campaign, using false billing from a public relations firm called Bygmalion. He has denied any wrongdoing.

And French prosecutors on Thursday demanded he face a new trial over alleged Libyan financing of his 2007 election campaign.

Financial crimes prosecutors said Sarkozy and 12 others should face trial over allegations they sought millions of euros in financing from the regime of then Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi for the ultimately victorious campaign.

Sarkozy is accused of corruption, illegal campaign financing and concealing the embezzlement of public funds but rejects all the charges.

Investigating magistrates are to have the last word on whether or not that trial goes ahead.

Despite his legal problems, Sarkozy still enjoys considerable influence and popularity on the right of French politics and has the ear of incumbent President Emmanuel Macron.

Before Sarkozy, the only French leader to be convicted in a criminal trial was his predecessor Jacques Chirac, who received a two-year suspended sentence in 2011 for corruption over a fake jobs scandal relating to his time as Paris mayor.

(AFP)

Corruption is Everywhere > Big Pharma's Influence; Brazil's Lula Cleared; Peru's Fujimori Sore Loser; Zuma Ordered to Prison; EU's Vaccine Racism; Moon for Treason?

..

Conflicts of interest alleged in ‘multi-layered web of influence’

as Big Pharma pays millions to informal Parliament groups

25 Jun, 2021 14:14

FILE PHOTO: ©REUTERS / Yves Herman

Health-related semi-formal working groups of the British Parliament are taking millions in donations from the pharmaceutical industry, which presents an obvious potential for conflicts of interest, a new study has said.

All-Party Parliamentary Groups, or APPGs, are the less-regulated cousins of select committees, where MPs and peers interested in a certain topic can work together. There are currently over 700 of them, focused on issues from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, and from a genetic condition called ‘22q11 Syndrome’ to zoos and aquariums.

Just like the formal parliamentary working groups, APPGs can raise awareness of certain problems, hold inquiries, and produce reports, but they have fewer formal rules as to how they should operate. For example, they are allowed to involve external organizations to co-author their publications, or take funding from external sponsors to cover their administrative expenses or organize events.

A new study published in the scientific journal PLOS One focuses on 146 health-related registered APPGs and the money some of them received from the drug industry. 

Between 2012 and 2018, pharmaceutical companies provided almost £2.2 million ($3 million), or roughly 30 percent of all funding received by 58 such groups, the study’s authors estimate.

The money in question was paid either by drug companies themselves or through industry-funded patient organizations, which authors of the study consider lobbyist vehicles for the corporations. They said the arrangement is part of a “multi-layered web of influence” that corporations have on policy making.  

The APPGs for Cancer and Health were the biggest recipients by value, with the former receiving virtually all its funding (99.61 percent) from industry sources. 22 groups received 100 percent of their external funding from them.

“We suggest that, in the context of health related APPGs, payments from the pharmaceutical industry represent institutional conflicts of interest as they create circumstances where the primary interest (policymaking in the interests of public health) is at risk of being unduly influenced by the secondary interest (the pharmaceutical industry’s goal of maximising profits),” the study said.

The researchers backed up their argument by pointing to the content of the output that the informal groups have made over the years. Seven publications by APPGs for Cancer and HIV that involved input from external organisations named 28 contributors from 13 different companies. Nineteen of them had provided payments to the APPG publishing the report, which “suggests that there is a link between providing payments to APPGs and being involved in their activities.”

Speaking to the Guardian, the authors of the study stressed that they were not alleging any impropriety on the part of the APPGs they looked into. But the groups “are a key part of policymaking and it is clear that corporate money is entering the APPG bloodstream,” Emily Rickard and Dr Piotr Ozieranski, from Bath University’s Department of Social and Policy Sciences, said.

They believe that Big Pharma’s influence on healthcare policies has to be analysed holistically, and that there need to be stricter transparency rules for APPGs to manage conflicts of interest. Parliament is currently examining the institution and whether it requires additional regulation.

Brazil’s top court tosses graft cases against ex-President Lula,

furthering new bid for presidency

25 Jun, 2021 08:19

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ©REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli

The Supreme Court of Brazil has reset two cases against former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, which had been brought by a judge that the court had earlier found biased, bringing him closer to a new run for president.

A magistrate of the Supreme Federal Court invalidated all evidence brought in the two cases by Sergio Moro as part of the large-scale corruption investigation known as ‘Lava Jato’ (Operation Car Wash). The court earlier found Moro biased against Lula, as he is commonly known in Brazil, and overturned a criminal conviction that he passed on the former president in 2017.

The conviction barred the socialist Lula from running against right-wing candidate Jair Bolsonaro in the 2018 presidential election, which resulted in the latter’s win. Moro then became justice minister under President Bolsonaro.

A series of leaks of communications between the ex-judge and others involved in the prosecution of Lula, which were published by journalist Glenn Greenwald, indicated that the conviction was the result of a plot to bar him from returning to power. At one moment, Deltan Dallagnol, the lead prosecutor in the operation, called Lula’s arrest “a gift from the CIA,” which some people interpreted as evidence that the Donald Trump administration was involved in the plot.

In March, the Brazilian Supreme Court agreed that political bias was present in the case and ruled to overturn Lula’s conviction. It also accused Moro of seven counts of felony judicial bias during his handling of Lava Jato.

This week’s ruling by Supreme Court Magistrate Gilmar Mendes expands that decision to the two cases that Moro launched against Lula while serving as a judge in the city of Curitiba and orders the nullification of “all the decision-making actions” by him. The decision comes days after a federal court acquitted Lula on corruption charges in yet another case.

The news means that it is becoming less likely that Lula will be convicted of a crime and be barred from running in next year’s presidential election in Brazil in a repeat of the 2018 scenario. While he didn’t officially announce his candidacy, Lula is expected by many to run against Bolsonaro, whose policies he has harshly criticized. A poll last month indicated that Lula would win by a comfortable margin, should he and the incumbent president go to a run-off.

Lula, who was in office from 2003-2010, has denied all corruption allegations against him. He still faces three trials, one in Brasilia and two in Sao Paulo.

Peru’s Fujimori demands ‘international audit’ of ballot after

leaked tapes point to attempt to bribe her way into presidency

29 Jun, 2021 12:14

As Keiko Fujimori’s chances of flipping an election loss fade, she demanded a foreign ‘audit’ of the results she has challenged. Last week, she was implicated in an alleged attempt to bribe a jury reviewing her fraud complaints.

The right-wing candidate is struggling to legally overturn the outcome of the June 6 presidential election. The final count put her behind leftist contender Pedro Castillo by just over 44,000 votes, but she sought to annul some 220,000 ballots based on claims of irregularities.

On Monday, she sent a letter to acting president Francisco Sagasti, urging him to ask “international organizations” to conduct an audit of the vote, stating that it was the only way for Peruvians to “know the truth.” She said that, without an external checkup, the legitimacy of the next president would forever be in question and that it was Sagasti’s “historic mission” to deliver one.

Fujimori didn’t say which international organizations she believes should lend legitimacy to the election. The Organization of American States (OAS) called it free and fair, as did many governments, with the US State Department even describing it as a “model of democracy.”

The petition seems to demonstrate Fujimori’s expectation that the National Jury of Elections (JNE), a special four-person judicial body that reviews election complaints, would not take her side. On Monday, the JNE rejected 10 claims by her Popular Force party, bringing the confirmation of Castillo’s win closer. More hearings are expected this week.

The JNE resumed work after replacing one of its members last week. Judge Luis Arce stepped down on Wednesday, saying he refused to carry out the duty after being suspended for alleged pro-Fujimori bias and conflict of interest. His replacement was sworn in on Saturday.

Earlier, Arce’s name came up in leaked tapes allegedly exposing a plot to bribe three members of the JNE so that they would rule in Fujimori’s favor. The plot was attributed to Vladimiro Montesinos, the former powerful intelligence chief under ex-president Alberto Fujimori, the father of the embattled candidate.

In the tapes that were released on Tuesday, Montesinos seemed to instruct a contact in the military about who he should contact to influence the JNE. In another one, a politician claimed that Arce asked for $3 million for each judge willing to vote in support of Fujimori’s claims. The authenticity of the tapes and the possible crimes they indicate are now being investigated by the Peruvian Prosecutor General’s office at the JNE’s request.

The bribery plot scandal was particularly explosive due to the fact that Montesinos is currently serving a 25-year prison term for crimes he committed while in office. He is in custody at a naval base. It was reminiscent of a 2000 outcry over a video, in which he was shown bribing an opposition congressman to support the party of his boss. It was one of the final blows before the downfall of Alberto Fujimori. He is likewise serving a sentence over corruption and abuse of human rights during his presidency.

Keiko Fujimori herself is facing corruption allegations and spent about 13 months behind bars in pre-trial detention between 2018 and 2020, before being released on parole.

Her refusal to concede to Castillo has further fuelled Peru’s political division. Supporters of the two candidates regularly hold mass protests in their support, but so far have managed to avoid major violence. Fujimori has the backing of urban elites and the conservatives, while Castillo, a teacher and union organizer, has won the hearts of poor rural residents.

Castillo was decried by Fujimori as a communist who would ruin Peru’s fragile economy with expropriation of property and other similar policies. His actions after scoring the majority vote, however, somewhat alleviated such fears. He appointed several moderate economic advisers and last week announced he would ask Julio Velarde, a respected chair of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru, to retain his position under his presidency.

The support for Fujimori, meanwhile, seems to have dwindled, as evidenced by an editorial printed at the weekend by the influential conservative newspaper El Comercio, which harshly criticized her attempts to stall the certification of election results.

Of course, we can't assume that a newspaper has no political bias, but....

Former South African president sentenced to 15 months in prison

for failing to appear at corruption inquiry

29 Jun, 2021 11:47

Former South African President Jacob Zuma stands in the dock after recess of his corruption trial at the Pietermaritzburg High Court in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, on May 26, 2021. © AFP / PHILL MAGAKOE

South Africa’s Constitutional Court has ruled that the country’s former president, Jacob Zuma, should serve 15 months in prison for contempt of court after he refused to cooperate with and appear at a corruption inquiry.

Zuma refused to appear at the corruption inquiry earlier this year, despite the presiding judge demanding he give evidence. The former president’s legal team argued he did not have to testify, citing a series of technicalities.

“Mr. Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma is sentenced to undergo 15 months’ imprisonment,” the judge stated, issuing the court’s order, and gave him five days to surrender to police.

The corruption inquiry judiciary had previously filed an application with the Constitutional Court, requesting that Zuma be sentenced to two years behind bars for contempt of court after he refused to attend or provide affidavits.

The former leader repeatedly denied any wrongdoing throughout his nine-year term, which began in 2009 and ended with his ousting in 2018. The charges center on claims that he allowed several prominent businessmen to exploit state resources and wield undue influence over government policy.

A spokesperson for Zuma told South African media that he would be issuing a statement later today, but did not provide any further information about his response. The former president has in the past claimed he was being “vilified” and unfairly accused of being “the king of corrupt people.”

Just incredible!

Indians cry ‘discrimination’ as AstraZeneca’s local vaccine left off

EU’s green list, but identical European-made one included

29 Jun, 2021 09:28

Men ride on a motorbike past a supply truck of India's Serum Institute, the world's largest maker of

 vaccines, which is working on a vaccine against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in Pune, India

(FILE PHOTO) © REUTERS/Euan Rocha

People in India have slammed a decision by the European Union not to include the Indian-made Covishield vaccine – a locally produced copy of the AstraZeneca shot – in its vaccine passport program, labeling it an “insult.”

On Monday, Adar Poonawalla, the head of the Serum Institute of India (SII) said the European Medicines Agency (EMA) had elected against including Covishield in the list of vaccines sanctioned within the EU scheme. 

The program, which, from July 1, opens European borders to people who have been inoculated with approved EU vaccines, includes AstraZeneca’s vaccines produced in the EU and the UK but not the identical version made by the SII, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer. The list also includes the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson shots. 

Poonawalla said on Twitter that he was aware that many Indians were now facing issues traveling to the EU, having been administered the Covishield jab, and promised to resolve the matter as soon as possible. 

The online reaction to the EU decision has been damning, with many accusing Brussels of double standards and “vaccine racism.” 

Some called it “discrimination,” and questioned why the EU would differentiate an Indian firm renowned for its vaccine-making capacity from European manufacturers, when the shot was “made with proper technology transfer from the mother company.” 

Another described the EU’s move as “shocking,” noting: “Needless formality that SII has to specially apply, considering the two are literally the same,” Meanwhile, one Twitter user said it was clearly a “a policy decision” by Brussels, and one that was “quite frankly, very insulting.” 

 

Others were keen to point out that the Covishield vaccine, approved by the World Health Organization, and used around the world, had also been exported to the UK. “This is for Covishield, which is approved and used in the UK and some countries in the EU, until they stopped it,” one person noted, referencing that five million Indian-made AstraZeneca vaccines had been exported to Britain earlier in the pandemic, albeit without Covishield branding.  

The EU had attempted to make up for the shortfall in European AstraZeneca production by procuring direct from the SII, although it is not clear whether any Indian-made AstraZeneca was administered within the EU. 

The SII has now filed for authorization for its copy of the AstraZeneca vaccine to be used in Europe and therefore included in the EU’s program. The Economic Times reported that India’s foreign ministry had raised the issue with the EMA.

An AstraZeneca spokesperson said they were working to ensure the “inclusion of Covishield as a recognized vaccine for immunization passports” in the EU.

South Korea police investigating treason charges against president

By Elizabeth Shim

A North Korean defector whose office was raided by local authorities in 2020 is accusing President Moon Jae-in of collaborating with the enemy, according to South Korean press reports Monday. File Pool photo by Stefani Reynolds/UPI | License Photo

June 28 (UPI) -- Police in South Korea are investigating charges against President Moon Jae-in after a North Korean defector and the former head of the Korea Medical Association accused Moon of treason.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's criminal investigation division said it is conducting a probe after Park Sang-hak of Fighters for a Free North Korea and Choi Dae-jip, a physician, filed the charges with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, News 1 reported Monday.

The complaint against Moon was filed May 13, according to local newspaper Herald Business. The two men accuse the South Korean leader of "joining an enemy state" and harming South Korean national interest. The president also is being charged with abuse of authority and "crimes that benefit the enemy," the report said.

Choi, who clashed with Moon at the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic in 2020 over Moon's decision to not ban travelers from China, has resigned from his leadership position at KMA. On Monday, Choi addressed South Korea's anti-leafleting law, according to reports.

"After Vice Chairwoman of the Korean Workers' Party Kim Yo Jong made a commotion about the launch of 500,000 leaflets to North Korea, the commissioner of the National Police Agency ordered an investigation and raided Park's office," Choi said, according to News 1.

Choi also said "the president cannot give specific investigation orders to police and prosecutors" -- implying Moon interfered with Park's case.

South Korea's criminal code forbids actions that could be classified as treason, including "joining forces with an enemy state." Government actions taken against Park are the equivalent of treason, according to the activist and Choi.

"Although the dissemination of North Korean leaflets is an effective way to provide stimulating information about the outside world to North Koreans and induce changes in the North Korean system, it has been met with obstruction," Park and Choi said in their complaint.

South Korea's leaflet ban is the "act of joining with the enemy, North Korea," they said.

South Korea has defended the leaflet ban, citing resident safety near the demilitarized zone.

Really?

Corruption is Everywhere > Even to the Level of the Presidency of France; Congress, Pentagon, Money

..

Sarkosy joins Chirac as former Presidents of France convicted of Corruption

1 Mar, 2021 13:11 

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, wearing a protective face mask, arrives for the verdict in

his trial on charges of corruption and influence peddling, at Paris courthouse, France, March 1, 2021.

© Reuters / Gonzalo Fuentes

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been found guilty of corruption on charges of trying to bribe a magistrate. The judge sentenced Sarkozy to three years in prison, with two years suspended.

Judge Christine Mee, who presided over the case, stated that the 66-year-old former political leader had “used his status as former French president” in a “particularly serious” act of wrongdoing, as she handed down the sentence.

Sarkozy was put on trial over accusations of trying to bribe Gilbert Azibert, a French magistrate, by offering him a well-paid job in Monaco in return for information about a criminal investigation into his political party at the time, the Union for a Popular Movement.

The investigation was looking into claims that Sarkozy and his party had received illegal payments from businesswoman Liliane Bettencourt during his successful 2007 presidential campaign.

The trial saw the former president accused of influence-peddling and violation of professional secrecy, with prosecutors seeking a four-year sentence with two years suspended for Sarkozy.

Prosecutors had focused their case on recorded conversations involving the co-defendants, where the bribery scheme was discussed, with Herzog mentioning in one call that Azibert was interested in a job in Monaco, and Sarkozy claiming he would “help” him.

Throughout the trial and despite the sentencing, Sarkozy has denied the allegations and protested his innocence. He is expected to appeal the court’s judgement.

While the former president has been given a one-year prison term and a two-year suspended term, the judge ruled that Sarkozy would be allowed to serve his sentence wearing an electronic tag under house arrest.

The investigation into Sarkozy can be traced back to the creation of France’s National Financial Prosecutor’s Office in 2014, which was investigating the former president over allegations that he had illegally received millions of euro in campaign financing from the ex-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddaffi. As part of their case, prosecutors tapped Sarkozy’s phone and that of his then-lawyer Herzog, recording conversations that revealed the bribery scheme.

Sarkozy is still facing another trial later this year, alongside 13 other individuals, over charges of illegally financing his 2012 presidential campaign. The case will focus on claims his office used a system of false accounting to hide overspending. He ultimately lost that election to Francois Hollande.

Alongside the former president, the French court also found co-defendants Thierry Herzog, Sarkozy’s former lawyer, and Gilbert Azibert, the magistrate he was accused of bribing, guilty and gave them the same sentence.

This is the second time in France’s history that a former president has been given a prison sentence. Jacques Chirac, who was Sarkozy’s predecessor, was found guilty of misusing public money in 2011 and was handed a two-year suspended sentence over criminal actions that occurred during his time as mayor of Paris.

US inspector finds AT LEAST $2.4 billion ‘wasted’ on buildings in Afghanistan

in ‘clear pattern’ of misuse and destruction

1 Mar, 2021 21:06

File photo: Men peer through windows of their building blown out by a bomb in Kabul, Afghanistan, December 20, 2020. ©  REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail

Billions of US taxpayer dollars have been wasted on building infrastructure in Afghanistan that isn’t actually needed or can’t be used or maintained properly, says a new report from a special inspector, unlikely to change things.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) identified “about $2.4 billion in assets that were unused or abandoned, had not been used for their intended purposes, had deteriorated, or were destroyed” out of nearly $7.8 billion the US has spent on capital assets in the country.

Only $1.2 billion worth of assets were being used as intended, and only $343.2 million worth was in good condition, SIGAR said in a report sent to Congress at the end of February.

As long as the money is flowing, that's all that matters. Doesn't matter who it goes to or what it is for. War-mongering oligarchs will just continue to get richer.

These capital assets were just a portion of the nearly $36 billion the US has spent since 2002 to “support governance and economic and social development,” in Afghanistan, on top of the cost of waging war against the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Islamic State and other groups designated as terrorists.

Since SIGAR’s establishment in 2008, the inspectorate’s reports have shown “a clear pattern of nonuse, misuse, deterioration, or destruction” of capital assets the US built for the Afghan government. The latest report includes the detailed descriptions of a “stratified sample” of 60 capital assets, concluding that 91 percent of the $792.1 million spent on them went to projects that were “unused or abandoned, were not used as intended, had deteriorated, were destroyed, or had some combination of the above.” 

The sample included roads and bridges, hospitals, schools, irrigation systems, power plants, police and border facilities. Among the examples were a hospital in the Parwan province designed for a staff of 150 that only had 19 employees; one crumbling and one completely destroyed bridge; and a “center of excellence” school for boys in the Laghman province that ended up serving as a guest house for visiting government officials instead.

There was even a garbage incinerator facility built at a military base used by both US and Afghan government forces that never got used because “open-air burn pits… cost less to operate.” Meanwhile, US veterans have complained of a variety of chronic conditions attributed to burn pits. 

SIGAR concluded that many capital assets were not wanted or needed to begin with and the Afghans lacked resources to maintain or use them as intended, but also that in some cases the US agencies behind them – primarily the Pentagon, State Department and USAID – simply didn’t deliver the projects to the locals on time and in a usable state.

Given that SIGAR has been warning about wasteful spending in Afghanistan for over 12 years now, it doesn’t appear likely that the latest report will make much of a difference in Washington.

The House Oversight and Reform Committee scheduled a hearing about it for March 16. The chair of the Subcommittee on National Security Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Massachusetts) said that US taxpayer resources “must be more wisely and carefully allocated to ensure they do not go to waste.” However, he prefaced that by saying he believes that “targeted humanitarian relief and construction assistance for Afghanistan was and is warranted.”

The US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, DC were blamed on Al-Qaeda and the Taliban government was accused of sheltering the terrorist group’s leader Osama bin Laden. He was tracked down and killed in Pakistan in 2011, but the war in Afghanistan continued.

Under the terms of the peace agreement the Trump administration signed with the Taliban in February 2020, US troops were supposed to leave Afghanistan by May 2021. The Biden administration has walked back that commitment, however, accusing the Taliban of not honoring their part of the bargain.

Of course, Biden would walk it back. Deep State is back in charge in Washington so the money will just keep flowing to friends in Afghanistan as it has begun again in Syria.